


Beyond the Door

by riverscape



Series: Lockdown chronicles [2]
Category: JO1 (Japan Band)
Genre: Comedy, Eavesdropping, Gen, M/M, No Romance, One Shot, POV Outsider, quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28675188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riverscape/pseuds/riverscape
Summary: “So. Are they dating?”
Relationships: Kawanishi Takumi/Kawashiri Ren
Series: Lockdown chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2101620
Kudos: 16





	Beyond the Door

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place in early 2020. Sometime during the first state of emergency.

Junki pressed his ear against the door, trying to discern any audible sounds coming from the other side, but he heard nothing.

Initially he didn’t believe the others, but they had made him curious. Not to mention staying cooped inside was starting to get to him. Now he was standing in front of Ren’s door, eavesdropping like a prying fool.

Maybe he was a little too bored.

* * *

“That surprised me,” Mame said, popping the can open. “What Ren-kun mentioned.”

“About Takumi playing games?”

They were in the middle of recording the weekly radio recording for the fanclub. Mame just left the booth to get a drink and met up with Junki and Ruki in front of the vending machine.

“Yeah. I asked Takumi-kun to come play once,” Mame said, then took a gulp from the can of coke. “But he declined so I thought he wasn’t into it.”

“Not even Keigo knew. He looked really surprised.” Ruki leaned against the wall. “And here I thought he was pretty close to Takumi.”

“They _are_ close,” Junki said, “…I guess?”

Everyone knew Keigo and Takumi hung out a lot together.

Ruki shrugged.

“Perhaps Takumi just wanted to play alone with Ren?”

Junki frowned.

“Why only Ren? He can play with us too!”

“Maybe because Junki is too noisy,” Mame said, jokingly.

“Hey!”

The younger boy ignored his protest.

“But it’s interesting how those two are low key nowadays, Compared to last year. At least, in the eyes of the fans.”

“True.” Ruki smirked a little. “They’re already over the honeymoon phase of their relationship. There’s no need to show off anymore.”

Junki raised an eyebrow.

“Now you’re making it sound like they’re dating…”

“Who’s dating?”

Sho had just returned from the recording booth area.

Junki sighed. “No one.”

“Ren and Takumi,” Ruki said.

“Wait. What?” Sho’s eyes instantly became as big as saucers.

Junki laughed. “Why are you taking him so seriously?”

Mame grinned.

“Yeah. It’s just a joke.”

Sho let out a sigh.

“Don’t joke about things like that. For a moment I really thought…”

Junki frowned at their leader’s palpable relief. Mame looked equally confused.

“No way, right. Sho?” Junki said.

“Well.” Sho showed an awkward smile. “Even if it were, it’s none of our business.”

“I guess...”

Junki wasn’t really sure what to make of Sho’s reaction. It sounded like he knew something that they didn’t.

Ruki put his drink on the table and began tracing the top of the can with a finger.

“Well, after that photoshoot, I can totally see it coming from Ren’s side.”

“Which shoot?” Mame said.

Ruki started speaking in a low voice.

“The one with the almost kiss.”

Junki widened his eyes.

Oh, that one.

Ruki continued, “You didn’t see it, but you all heard them giggle, right?”

Junki distinctly remembered Ren and Takumi having a giggling fit as they tried to stare into each other’s eyes. One of the photographers had requested those two to stare at each other for a three-shot, and they obliged. Right after the shoot was done, Junki watched them walk away from the set with fiery red ears.

“Sho and I were there to see it. They blushed a lot,” Ruki said. “It was really cute.”

* * *

“So. Are they dating?”

Weeks later Junki was in Keigo’s room. They had just made dinner together with Shosei and Sukai, but the younger boys took off to play games in another room. They ended up watching a movie on television, but instead of paying close attention, they talked about various other things. At some point, the conversation topic somehow strayed to Ren and Takumi.

Junki was reminded of the conversation with the others, so he discussed it with Keigo again. Maybe he knew more.

But Keigo shrugged.

“Who knows.”

He seemed rather disinterested, but he didn’t deny it either.

At this point, Junki wasn’t sure whether Ruki had been messing around, but the expression on Sho’s face had told him otherwise.

“I mean.” He tried again. “Is there anything suspicious going on behind that wall?”

Keigo frowned at the other.

“I hope you didn’t ask Sukai the same question.”

“Of course not!” he said. “It’s just.”

“Just what.”

Junki crawled closer and whispered.

“His bed is on your side of the wall.”

Keigo made a face.

“I swear. I don’t hear anything. I never even noticed they were playing games!”

“Well, they’re not as loud as I am,” Junki admitted.

“Yeah, and this is why I need to gag your mouth shut…”

“Keigo! I’m bored and I need to know!”

“Well, why don’t you head over to Ren tomorrow?” he said, “Takumi is probably there around this time.”

* * *

Junki stood in front of Ren’s door the night after. He felt stupid for coming here, but Keigo dared him into checking out his neighbour’s situation.

“Just drop by as you usually do,” Keigo said, from next door. “It’s no big deal.”

No big deal, Junki scoffed. He was starting to feel embarrassed.

But as expected, he couldn’t hear a single sound coming from the room. Ren and Takumi were being quiet as usual.

Junki’s impulse was to barge in without knocking, but he felt it was insincere.

He knocked twice, but there was no response.

“Ren!” Junki said, loud enough for the room’s occupants to hear. “I’m coming in.”

He opened the door and heard the familiar video game sounds from the television. Both Ren and Takumi were indeed in the room, but not on the bed or anywhere near it. The boys were surrounded by bags of potato chips and empty candy wraps.

Junki scrunched his nose at the scene. What have those two been eating all this time?

Ren and Takumi were playing Smash Bros, silently, but neither gave any single indication that they had noticed Junki coming in. Their concentration had sucked entirely into the game.

So Junki just stood there, behind them, watching their game.

They were just playing games. Ruki had just fooled him (or rather, he fooled himself) into thinking there was something more going on, but he couldn’t blame the other member. If Junki felt like a prying fool two minutes ago, now he felt even more foolish.

Since his inquisitive thoughts had been abruptly shut down, Junki decided to settle for watching them play. Because well, this was a rather fierce match. Takumi was surprisingly good at the game. How did he get so good? And how did he manage to be on par with Ren in Smash Bros so quickly? Junki always struggled to beat Ren even after so long. Takumi was scary. Scratch that. They were both scary.

The match ended.

“Ah! I lost,” Ren said, holding out his fist to the boy beside him. ”Good game!”

Takumi met his knuckles with his own.

“That was intense. I broke out in sweat.”

At that moment, Ren noticed Junki’s presence in the room.

“Oh Junki, it’s you.”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Wanna play too?”

Junki laughed awkwardly.

“N-no thanks,” he said. “Um, I’m making a snack at Keigo’s place… He just ran out of salt. Can I borrow some of yours?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Junki left with a bowed head and a container with salt.

“And?” Keigo stood there outside, waiting for him. “You look like you’ve seen some shit.”

He let out a weary sigh.

“I just lost all of my confidence.”

“What do you mean?”

Junki put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t go in, Keigo,” he said. “It’s like a war out there.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm cleaning up my old drafts, and this was one of them! It's not really a renkumi fic, but it may or may not take place in the same universe as my other one shot Arcade.
> 
> BTW I opened [a twitter account](https://twitter.com/rvrscp) for my fic updates the other day. 😁 ~~Please vote for your preference for the next renkumi fic in the pinned tweet. I'd appreciate your feedback!~~ Thanks for voting~ Poll is closed.


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